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Next-Gen Video

By Barbara Arnn

12/27/06

The latest videoconferencing tools are enabling diverse
learning initiatives at colleges and universities across the country.

WHETHER THE MANDATE is to offer a
single class that trains students in studio
production, to produce 25 videoconferenced
classes a day for thousands of students
across different continents, or to
offer the very latest high-definition (HD)
technology to a regional consortium of
users, schools across the US are using the
latest videoconference and audio/video
streaming technologies creatively, to move
to the next level of their very specific needs.

AT GEORGIA TECH, quality control specialists
simultaneously monitor all 12 of the school’s remote
classrooms, as well as video signals from around the world.

High-Volume Videoconferencing

At the Georgia Institute of Technology in
Atlanta, the technology that is the backbone
of the school’s extensive distance learning
program has to be responsive, flexible, and
above all, reliable. The Distance Learning
department needs to cover 25 to 30 videoconference
connections a day to support
125 courses per semester during the main
academic year, says George Wright, associate
director of distance learning. In addition, the department
hosts guest speakers, faculty presentations, conferences,
and even local business meetings.

To handle this workload, the department relies on 10 Tandberg 6000 codecs, three 880 codecs,
and one 1000. Georgia Tech recently chose to update an
older bridge with the Tandberg MPS 200 MCU bridge to
support its heavy videoconferencing load, in part because the
department already had all Tandberg codecs, but also
because through experience, Wright has been convinced of
the reliability and longevity of the product. In fact, he says that
although Georgia Tech currently has the capability of doing
HD videoconferencing, that development is on hold for the
moment. “We’ve got these old boxes that just keep running,
and I’m not going to throw them out. Some of those Tandberg
codecs are going on eight to 10 years old—we can’t kill them.”

Beyond classes and research conferences, the technology
supports crucial single events dependably and seamlessly,
says Wright. As examples, he cites a student at Georgia
Tech’s campus in the Lorraine region of France defending her
Ph.D. dissertation to a committee in Atlanta via videoconference,
as well as professors who hold office hours via web
meetings. “All they really need is a web meeting capability
similar to WebEx, Moodle, or Elluminate, and a reasonably
decent computer and microphone,” says Wright. Students
then join in via an internet connection and microphone.

The Distance Learning department routinely captures all
videoconferences and makes them available in an asynchronous
format. Explains Wright, “Typically, we do a web stream,
encoding in real time, so while [an event] is going on, we are
also encoding, and theoretically someone could log on to an
internet connection and see that web stream.” But as Wright
points out, many grad students—who often work full time and
are scattered in different time zones all over the world—prefer
asynchronous delivery. “Everything we do uses standard code, so as long as we stay within IEEE standards,
we can communicate with almost anybody,” he says.

Sharing Cutting-Edge Resources

Sometimes it takes the old-fashioned skill of bartering to
make new technology work well. At least, that seems to be
the case at SUNY-Cobleskill, a small agricultural and
technical college that belongs to the 64-member State
University of New York system.

Jack McNerney, a professor of communications at
Cobleskill, is also the executive director of Schopeg Access, a nonproft, community-access television
station on the Time Warner system.
Historically, SUNY-Cobleskill has provided Schopeg with
equipment housing, studio space, and utilities; in return,
McNerney teaches courses in studio production at Cobleskill
and uses Schopeg equipment to cover college events. “It’s a
symbiotic relationship,” says McNerney: “We trade services
for classes and coverage.”

When Schopeg was able to update its video system in
June 2006 as part of its TV franchise renewal, the college
benefited too. Faced with no staff and minimal funding,
McNerney decided to purchase a Sony AWS-G500 Anycast Station—an 18-pound “studio in a box”
—along with three Sony BRC-300 remote-control cameras.
“It’s worked very, very well,” McNerney says. “Using the Anycast
system, we can get down to two people and still run it.
Yet the system still gives us the ability to control all aspects of
production.” The Anycast comprises a six-input video switcher,
six-channel audio mixer, character generator or text-typing
tool, built-in frame synchronizer, scale converter, and an
onboard-monitor LCD screen with multiple splits, as well as
a streaming encoder and server.

Internet2’s bandwidth enables videoconferences to transmit subtle details of sight and sound—ideal for the performing arts.

The system’s portability was a major consideration for
McNerney. “It’s the size of a briefcase,” he says. “With wireless
mikes and remote control cameras, it takes 10 minutes
to set up. The monitors are built into the unit, there’s only
one power cord to worry about, and the cameras just tie into
it”—features that are particularly suited to the large amount
of sports coverage Schopeg d'es. “It gives us the ability to
be mobile and put on a quality studio broadcast in the field,
without needing a truck to haul everything. It’s a very sophisticated
portable studio.”

The unit has sent McNerney and his students and interns
in new directions. “We are now experimenting with streaming
video, and we have a fair number of computer-literate
interns who are working on the ins and outs of tying it into
the campus network,” he says. For students, says McNerney,
the unit also provides “a chance to see where TV production
is going—particularly studio production: fewer
people, wireless sound, more remote cameras.”

Performing in High-Def

The Mid-Atlantic Gigapop in Philadelphia for Internet2 is one of 32 similar sites that form the backbone of
Internet2 in the US. Besides serving as
an “on-ramp” to Internet2 for member instutions in Pennsylvania,
New Jersey, and Delaware, Jennifer Oxenford, MAGPI’s
associate director, explains, “We also work with members to
develop new projects and bring them some of the advanced
technologies coming out of the internet community.”

The most exciting recent technology that MAGPI has
added to its array, says Oxenford, is a LifeSize Room HD interactive-video unit. The Room system
includes a codec, a LifeSize phone, and an HD camera. The
system is easy to set up and assemble, says Oxenford.
“We’ve been kicking the tires to see what we can do with it.”

Over Internet2, LifeSize Room provides details of sight
and sound that make it an ideal tool for such applications
as performing arts master classes or language classes,
where being able to see and hear the speaker clearly is crucial.
Initial response from users about the quality of the Life-
Size videoconferences has been enthusiastic: One of the
first master classes conducted over the LifeSize Room system
featured composer Thomas Cabaniss, music animateur
for the Philadelphia Orchestra, who, along with a small
group of select musicians from The Philadelphia Orchestra,
led a workshop for music fellows at the Miami-based New
World Symphony, America’s Orchestral Academy. The difference in quality was striking, says Oxenford.
“You cannot do a master class over Internet1 with any
sense of video or audio performance,” she says, pointing
out that a 2-megabit interactive call of the sort the LifeSize
Room System requires could eat up much of a school’s
bandwidth, if done over a common internet connection.
“Over Internet2, you’ve got that bandwidth through dedicated
links, the video is better, the audio is better, and you
don’t have the delay that makes the difference between
something a musician in a master class can tolerate and
something that just isn’t up to speed.”

Cultural exchange series are another possibility, as are
events for the museum community. Says Oxenford, “To be
able to see the detail in a piece of clothing—to be able to
see cloth and fabric in a high-definition way—is really
where we’re looking to take the unit.”